Entering the Holiday Season!

Since the last time...okay well it's hard to believe more has happened since my last post, but so much has! Dec 1 was the start of a wonderful birthday weekend for me! Because my birthday fell on a Monday this year (Dec 3rd), Chad decided to make the weekend before a birthday extravaganza! So after work on Friday evening, Chad whisked me away a surprise Murder Mystery Comedy Theater Dinner! It was witty and coy, had an excellent 4 course meal, and enjoyed the company of those at our table. Chad was of course picked out by the actors to be pulled up "on stage" and do some impromptu acting, and he was the life of the party. Chad and I were great sleuths, and even figured out the murder with the subtle clues! It was a great night.

Chad was sad that the following morning was rainy and quite cold because he had an entire Saturday outdoor adventure planned with quad riding, gun shooting, a quiet brunch at a cafe tucked away in the hills, etc. This is postponed until further notice and instead, I broke my longtime family tradition, and purchased my Christmas tree BEFORE my birthday. It was our first Christmas tree buying/hauling/decorating experience, and it was grand. We later found that we could have purchased our tree for a fraction of the cost if we had gone to a larger retail store, but we enjoyed our experience at the corner lot down the road that was family owned! We put on Christmas tunes and decorated our beautiful tree together and it was great.

 

We also decided to spoil ourselves for Christmas and indulge in something we've avoided for a while - a new TV. Best Buy was still having Cyber Week deals, and needless to say, we spoiled ourselves. Chad was especially excited about setting up the new 60" screen LG TV that we're mountain in our bedroom!

Then Monday, December 3, my true birthday, my husband spoiled me some more. If he keeps spoiling me like this, I will turn into a brat! He surprised me by sending a beautiful bouquet of multi-colored roses with a sweet card, delivered by my MIL, Kim. She also brought gourmet cupcakes in some of my favorite flavors - red velvet, pumpkin, etc.



 

After the gorgeous flowers and goodies arrived, and may have indulged in a little bit of that goodness, Chad whisked me away once more to a festival of lights and colors, and the holiday spirit - we took a scenic drive down to Riverside where we dined at the Mission Inn, and walked around to view the gorgeous lights!!

 

 

 

And because I thought the lights were just THAT amazing, and the food was THAT delicious, and the ambiance of the decorated outdoors courtyard where we dined was THAT beautiful, we decided to take Chad's mom and grandmother out to the Mission Inn restaurant for THEIR birthdays a few days later!!

 

This past Sunday, 12/09/12, all of Chad's family got together to eat and celebrate Kim and Sandra's birthdays. It was an amazing evening, and such a perfect end to a fun-filled week(end) of birthdays and celebrations!!

 

Update Time!!

Wow, it's been WAY too long since I posted last. I really am no good at this whole blogging thing. Alot has happened in the last 7 months (since I last wrote anything - correction, blogged anything). Chad and I bought a house in Chino, Chad ran a terribly rigorous marathon in the mountains, we bought Chad a new truck, and we've started a big renovation project on our home! It's been some exciting stuff. First off - the house. After looking for about 9 months, we finally found house/area that we loved. We put an offer on the home, and we were outbid - what's new? The hard part was, Chad and I both felt so good about the house, the location, everything, so to hear that we didn't get the house was difficult for the both of us. About 2 weeks later, our realtor/family friend called us and said, "you must be paying your tithing, because you got the house afterall!" We were so incredibly excited. Escrow was so smooth (especially compared the our previous escrow that fell through on the day of closing), and we were moved into our house in less than 30 days! We instantly started remodeling the kitchen. Brand new custom cabinets and counter tops were done within the first week, and slowly everything else has come along. Our final touches will be done in the next 2 weeks when my dad comes up to put in our tumbled marble backsplash!!

Chad's grandpa, Darryl, gave us the BEST hose-warming gift ever - a complete overhaul of our yard! Our front/back yard were FILLED with unkempt trees that hadn't been maintained well over the years, deer figurines that were cemented with steel rods into random parts of our crab-tree grass, and terrible cactus planters. Darryl and his workers have helped us to remove tons of unwanted trees, properly prune our amazing fruit trees in the back, and built planters to start planting flowers/my garden! YAY! It looks so much better. We can't wait to finish installing a sprinkler system, and then install our sod - then it will look even more beautiful! My dad's house-warming gift was equally as amazing - he has come up several times to do work on our house. He installed all new custom baseboards and door/window casings and they look amazing! Slowly this house is really coming along!

Since we sold our second car before moving home from Hawaii, Chad and I have shared a car because we work less than .5 mile from each other, and it has just worked. But he has wanted a truck, so we've been looking and looking. We had some prerequisistes - it was in our budget (which was a huge part of the searching process since we had just purchased a home and did a major remodel that equaled big bucks), a four door (to be able to put a baby in the back for when we eventually start our family), and that it was relatively good with gas mileage. After seriously looking for about 1 month, we found an amazing deal on this Chevy Colorado that Chad LOVES!

 

Chad also decided to run a full marathon!! I was actually the one who wanted to train for a marathon. We started by running our first half marathon in Fontana. It was a great race, and we finished in our goal time. We continued running/training, hoping to run a full marathon in November. Long story short, Chad and 3 of his co-workers decided to run a mountain/trail marathon for the first run - one that I opted out of because it was through grueling terrain, and thought it would be nicer to my body if I chose a standard road marathon. I was so proud when Chad finished 7th overall, and beat the prior year's record!!

 

Then of course, my brother, Chase, came home from his 2 year mission to Guatemala for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He served a faithful, successful mission and we could not be more proud. Listening to his mission experiences always made me reflect back to my time as a full-time missionary for our church to Japan - we could bond over the struggles and joy that came from that special time in our lives. All in all, Chad and I feel truly blessed for all that the Lord has given to us. We will be celebrating our 2 year anniversary in December, and look forward to many more wonderful years together!

 

And

FIRST POST!!

Get excited people, this is my first post on my first blog - EVER. I've decided to start this blog so everyone can stay current on all of our exciting happenings, because there are SO many. Just to get you up to date on recent events in our lives, here is the rundown in "fast forward":

On December 3, we celebrated my 26th birthday by taking a surprise weekend to Vegas! Chad surprised me yet again by taking me to see Phantom of the Opera at the Venetian. It was absolutely amazing, and our seats were incredible! We ate yummy Brazilian bbq, enjoyed the lights and festivities of Vegas near Christmastime, and even sat in on a time share presentation (please note that that was not the highlight of the trip).

On December 28, 2011, Chad and I celebrated our one year anniversary! How that first year flew by! We celebrated this exciting day by taking the weekend in Los Angeles. We had an incredible hotel (the Omni) and saw Wicked at Pantages, which was something I will never forget. We had a blast! We also went back to the gorgeous Pelican Hill resort in Newport for a fabulous dinner at Andreas. The food was absolutely amazing, and that was the fanciest restaurant we've ever been to!!

On Jan 28, we put an offer on a home, and got that offer accepted and went into escrow! What an exciting day for us! It is a 3br, 2 ba house in Ontario that is full of potential!!! We're excited for that next chapter in our lives!

On February 14, Chad and I enjoyed a great Vday. I decorated our room filled with hearts with 100 reasons why I love Chad. There were candles and candies, and of course, a present. Because I love him so, I bought him tickets to Monster Jam at Dodger Stadium. It was actually quite fun/eventful. Not exactly my typical crowd, but I definitely got into the huge trucks getting trashed and doing crazy jumps. Chad was so sweet and had a beautiful bouquet of my favorite roses sent to my office. He also sent chocolates and a cute teddy bear with a cryptic note alluding to where our special Vday dinner was to take place -at Magic Lamp! What tasty food, and a romantic evening for us!!

TODAY, 4/10/12- Now that you've heard some of the highlights of our past few months together, on to the here and now. We are STILL in escrow. According to a co-worker of mine, "It's easier to have a baby than to close escrow." With my limited knowledge and/or experience with childbirthing, I don't know if my opinion is worthy much, but at this point, I am leaning towards my co-worker's opinion. We've encountered just about every possible hurdle a first-time homebuyer could experience, but we're still excited as ever to have a place to call our own. It's been exciting choosing the different paint colors, and how I want to change the cabinets/granite countertops, and to envision the finished product! As of right now, we're expected to close no later than 4/20/12, so cross your fingers for us!!